Sandgren Takes Futures Title in Canada; Virginia Tech Men Upset Second-ranked Duke; ITF Junior Update

Tennys Sandgren won the $15,000 Futures in Canada Sunday, collecting his first title since he won the Champaign Challenger in November of 2013. After hip surgery kept him out between February and September of 2014, the former Tennessee Volunteer had seen his ranking drop from the 180s all the way down to the 700s.  Although unseeded this week, Sandgren beat No. 8 seed Matteo Donati of Italy, top seed Jarmere Jenkins, No. 6 seed Nick Meister and in the final, unseeded Philip Bester of Canada 6-3, 7-6(7). The 23-year-old from Tennessee is scheduled to compete in next week's Futures in Canada as well. With the BNP Paribas Open qualifying beginning, there is no Pro Circuit event in the United States for the men.

The women have a $10,000 tournament in Gainesville, Florida, where qualifying is underway.

The upsets keep on coming in college tennis, with the second-ranked Duke men the victims today. In an ACC match in Blacksburg, played with traditional scoring, No. 44 Virginia Tech posted an impressive 6-1 win over the Blue Devils, taking all six singles matches without their No. 1 player Amerigo Contini in the lineup. Edoardo Tessaro clinched the match for the Hokies, defeating Bruno Semenzato 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 at line 4.

For more Division I men's results from today, see College Tennis Today.

Three Grade 1s were held this week on the ITF Junior Circuit, with two top seeds winning in Russia and Thailand.  Akira Santillan, who recently began competing under the Japanese flag after representing Australia for many years, won the Grade 1 in Thailand, defeating Nam Hoang Ly of Vietnam 6-3, 7-6(7). Santillan didn't drop a set, winning all three tiebreakers he played.  The girls title went to No. 2 seed Pranjala Yadlapalli, a 15-year-old from India, who beat Deria Nur Haliza of Indonesia 6-4, 6-1 in the final, and like Santilla, Yadlapalli didn't lose a set in the tournament. Top seed Naiktha Bains of Australia lost to Nur Haliza in the semifinals.

In Russia, boys top seed Alexandre Bublik took the title, beating No. 3 seed Denis Klok, also of Russia 6-4, 7-6(4) in the final. Bublik also won the doubles title, with compatriot Boris Pokotilov. No. 16 seed Karine Sarkisova of Russia won the girls title, defeating No. 3 seed Anna Blinkova, also of Russia, 7-6(2), 3-6, 7-6(5) in the final.  Top seed Anna Kalinskaya lost in the quarterfinals.

The Grade 1 Asuncion Bowl in Paraguay was disappointing for American juniors, with 18 of the 19 competing there going out in the first or second round.  No. 4 seed Marcelo Barrios Vera of Chile, who won the Grade 2 last month in Chile, defeated No. 6 seed Andre Pellegrino of Italy 6-2, 6-2 in the final.  The girls title was won by unseeded Beatrice Torelli of  Italy, who defeated No. 14 seed Maria Jose Portillo Ramirez of Mexico 6-2, 6-3 in the championship match.  Torelli had taken out top seed Maia Lumsden of Great Britain in the semifinals.

Gabby Pollner reached the doubles final with Jade Lewis of New Zealand, with the No. 8 seeds falling to Portillo Ramirez and Lara Escauriza of Paraguay, the No. 7 seeds, 6-4, 6-1 in the championship match.

At the Grade 4 in Sweden, wild card Roscoe Bellamy defeated top seed Boris Gojo of Croatia in the semifinals, but lost to unseeded Rudolph Molleker of Germany 6-3, 6-3 in the final.

At the Grade 4 in Guatemala, Chiara Lommer and Sabrina Faybyshev, the top seeds, won the girls doubles title, beating No. 2 seeds Camila Ramazzine of Guatemala and Ulyana Shirokova of Russia 6-4, 2-6, 10-7 in the final.

Giron Qualifies at Winston-Salem, Rubin Falls Just Short in ATP Debut; Gordon and Whoriskey, Singh and Dadamo in US Open National Playoffs Finals; Nguyen Takes Calgary Title; Mmoh Top Seed in ITF Grade 1

At the Winston-Salem Open, reigning NCAA champion Marcos Giron qualified for his first ATP main draw, winning three qualifying matches Saturday and Sunday.  Today former UCLA Bruin Giron defeated Mate Pavic of Croatia 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 and will play another ITA Player of the Year in the first round of the main draw, Alexsandr Nedovyesov of Kazakhstan, who played for Oklahoma State.  Giron has had a difficult summer, failing to win a main draw match on the Challenger level in five attempts, but he seems to be finding his form at just the right time, with his US Open debut a little over a week away.

Kalamazoo champion Noah Rubin made his main draw ATP debut tonight in Winston-Salem, with the 18-year-old wild card falling to 2010 NCAA champion Bradley Klahn(Stanford) 6-2, 0-6, 7-6(5).  Rubin trailed 4-1 in the final set, won four straight games to serve for the match, but was broken at love. Rubin forced the third set tiebreak serving down 5-6, but lost both his serves leading 3-2 in the tiebreaker, and Klahn won all the points on his serve to close it out.

The singles finals for the US Open National Playoffs are set for Monday, with 15-year-old Michaela Gordon playing Caitlin Whoriskey for the women's qualifying wild card, and defending champion Jeff Dadamo facing Sanam Singh for the men's qualifying wild card.

Gordon has been romping through her opponents the past two days. After losing just two games to No. 3 seed Jennifer Elie, Gordon beat No. 5 seed Jacqueline Cako 6-1, 6-2 today to reach the final. Former Tennessee Volunteer Whoriskey, who like Gordon is unseeded, reached the final with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over No. 4 seed Ashley Weinhold.

Top seed Singh, who played college tennis at Virginia, defeated No. 4 seed and rising North Carolina sophomore Ronnie Schneider 7-6(4), 6-1, while second seed Dadamo, who won the NCAA doubles title in 2011 while at Texas A&M, defeated former Kentucky All-American Jesse Witten 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Due to the Nationals last week, I neglected to note the Pro Circuit winners, with rising Virginia senior Mitchell Frank winning his second Futures of the summer at the $10,000 tournament in Edwardsville Illinois.  The unseeded Frank beat top seed Yuki Bhambri of India 7-6(5), 6-2 in the final.

There are no Pro Circuit tournaments the rest of this month in the United States, but many Americans are playing in Canada.  Daniel Nguyen, the former USC Trojan, won his second Futures title in the past month, at a $15,000 tournament in Calgary, Canada.  Nguyen avenged a recent Futures quarterfinal loss to Bjorn Fratangelo, taking the title with a 7-6(7), 5-7, 6-4 victory over the 21-year-old American, who was also unseeded.  North Carolina teammates Jack Murray and Brayden Schnur won the doubles title 6-4, 3-6, 10-7 over Dennis Nevolo(Illinois) and Bulgaria's Dimitar Kutrovsky(Texas).

At the ITF Grade A Youth Olympic Games, the first round of the boys singles and the first round of the girls doubles opened the competition Sunday.  Alex Rybakov, the only US boy in China for the tournament, lost to Lloyd Harris of South Africa 7-6(10), 6-4.  Sofia Kenin, the only US girl in China, is playing doubles with Mexico's Renata Zarazua, and they advanced to the quarterfinals, beating French Open girls champions Ioana Ducu and Ioana Rosca of Romania 1-6, 7-5, 10-8.

The draws are out for the ITF Grade 1 in College Park, Maryland, where I'll be traveling on Monday.  Michael Mmoh is the top boys seed, Anna Kalinskaya of Russia is the top girls seed.  Draws and Monday's order of play can be found at the tournament website.